Golding's about-face
Published:Friday | May 14, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
IN 2006, then Opposition Leader Bruce Golding demolished the argument that ministerial responsi-bility could be separated from party duties.
Four years later, Golding, now prime minister, drew on parliamentary rules to shut down questions from the Opposition, which attempted to quiz him on his role as party leader in the deepening Manatt saga.
Golding made a stunning revelation in Parliament on Tuesday that he had sanctioned the initiative to retain the services of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby US government officials on an extradition dispute.
During a fiery debate on the Trafigura Beheer scandal in 2006, Golding's theatrical description of a minister who purportedly tried to make a distinction between his role as government minister and that of party official has returned to haunt him.
"There seems to be an attempt to differentiate between Colin Campbell, the party official, and Colin Campbell, the minister of government.
"Now, we can't just jump out of one skin and jump into another. And we have to understand that given the nature of our political system, when we act as a minister to whatever extent, we carry party responsibilities, that you are not going to be able to simply separate them, that the one is going to impact on the other, especially when what you are seeking to do in the one capacity is contingent on the constitutional powers that you have in the other capacity. Cannot be separated," he charged.
In Gordon House on Tuesday, Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central Dr Peter Phillips, directed a number of questions to Golding.
He wanted to know why Golding did not divulge information on March 16 that he, as party leader, had approved the Manatt scheme when he denied that the Government was involved.
"...Why did he not say so then?" Phillips questioned.
Standing Orders shield
Responding, Golding reached for the Standing Orders, the rules of Parliament, stating, "I am going to start staying scrupulously by the rules.
"The member ought to be aware that in Standing Order 16, he can only ask a question of the minister in his official capacity in relation to his portfolio responsibility. You cannot ask in the House anything about my responsibility as party leader," he declared.
Trafigura Beheer is an international commodities-trading company that donated $31 million to the People's National Party in 2006. Dutch law prohibits such contributions and as a result, the company was investigated by that Government for allegedly offering bribes to the then Jamaican Government.
That scandal led to the resignation of Campbell as minister of information and development and party general secretary.